COLOMBIAN QUAGMIRE

With a new $1.3 billion US military package for Colombia's armed forces
ready and preparations under way for President Bill Clinton's visit on
August 30, there are indications that growing US involvement is
intensifying the country's four-decade-old civil war. Scores of people have
died in recent weeks as the country's two main guerrilla groups battle
security forces and right-wing paramilitary units.

The US package to Colombia, already the third largest recipient of American
military assistance, represents a tenfold increase.

Earlier this month, Clinton issued a presidential directive declaring US
aid to Colombia a national priority.

There have been ominous indications that the latest military package,
provided ostensibly to curb the production and export of cocaine, will be
used in a counter-insurgency campaign. Last month, six Black Hawk
helicopters supplied by the United States to combat drug trafficking were
used to support Colombian security forces during a clash with guerrillas in
the small southern town of Arboleda.

The line between counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics operations is
extremely blurred.

Coining the phrase "narco-guerrillas", Washington has attempted to justify
its focus by pointing to the guerrillas' use of funds collected from
cocaine producers in the areas under their control.

Similar relations have been established between narco-traffickers and
elements of the Colombian army as well as right-wing paramilitaries, which
have been blamed for countless massacres and assassinations. President
Andres Pastrana has failed to fulfil promises of a negotiated settlement of
the civil war, which is claiming 3,500 lives a year and has displaced 1.9
million people.

With the growing US presence and the vast expansion of military aid, it
appears increasingly likely that peace talks with the guerrillas will be
abandoned for a military solution.